1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure of invention relates to a gate driver structured such that its elements are better protected against being burned by static electricity and a liquid crystal display (LCD) including the gate driver.
2. Description of Related Technology
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) includes a display panel having a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines, a gate driver transmitting a plurality of gate signals to the gate lines, and a data driver transmitting a plurality of data signals to the data lines.
In a conventional LCD, each of the gate driver and data driver is mounted on a display panel in the form of one or more respective IC chips. However, attempts are being made to monolithically integrate at least one of the gate driver and the data driver on a same substrate having the thin-film transistors (TFTs) of the LCD in order to reduce the total size of the display device and to improve productivity and reliability. That is, a gate driver circuit which generates the gate signals of a TFTs-containing substrate is integrally formed on that substrate using an amorphous silicon TFT technology that directly mounts the gate driver circuit on the same glass substrate where the pixels and their respective TFT switching transistors are formed.
However, when a plurality of amorphous silicon TFTs are disposed on a glass or alike substrate to thus integrally form such a gate driver, static electricity generated in manufacturing facilities may flow to a gate driving circuit through an edge of the substrate and undesirably burn out elements of the gate driving circuit. Since the generation of static electricity in the manufacturing facilities cannot be prevented completely, it is desirable to develop a gate driver structured such that its elements are protected against being burned out by static electricity flowing thereto.
It is to be understood that this background of the technology section is intended to provide useful background for understanding the here disclosed technology and as such, the technology background section may include ideas, concepts or recognitions that were not part of what was known or appreciated by those skilled in the pertinent art prior to corresponding invention dates of subject matter disclosed herein.